Dance Theatre of Harlem Workshop Ensemble (1985)

Paul Bailey, a British ballet dancer, joined the Dance Theatre of Harlem Workshop Ensemble in 1985, alongside fellow Brits Samantha Webb, Adesola Akinleye, and Gregory James. The group of four dancers was sent by the Greater London Council to train and perform with the company. Bailey also danced with the main company as a corps de ballet member (Narratives 59). While at the company, he and his peers were interviewed by BBC’s Eye to Eye Series – Breaking the Mould.

A year before joining DTH, Bailey told The Guardian that “British companies were the worst in excluding black dancers,” a fact that motivated the Council to send the young dancers to the US.

Sources:

(Re:) Claiming Ballet, edited by Adesola Akinleye
Dance, The Crisis Oct 1985
The Big Leap, The Guardian
Narratives in Black British Dance: Embodied Practices. Germany, Springer International Publishing, 2018.